


Mutatis Aereum

by tomfoolery14



Series: Writer's Month 2020 [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Body Worship, Boys In Love, M/M, Magical Accidents, Post-Episode: s03e22 All Good Things..., Romantic Fluff, but before the time jump, magnus shines in magic and rune theory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25892035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomfoolery14/pseuds/tomfoolery14
Summary: The version of Alec that was looking back at him was emanating a pale blue energy that appeared to pulse around him like a shadow that clung to the body. The runes that were visible on his skin were no longer black but a deep shade of crimson, and for a moment he felt a shock of fear that it was blood, but when he reached up to drag a finger over one, there was no broken skin. Perhaps the most stunning feature, however, were his eyes—a mirror image of the cat eyes he had become so familiar with on his husband.“Fuck me,” he exhaled breathlessly, stepping closer to the mirror until the tip of his nose was almost touching the cool glass. The golden eyes followed him as he turned his head slowly from side to side, intent on his reflection.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Writer's Month 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1868773
Comments: 8
Kudos: 138
Collections: Hunter's Moon Fic Recs





	Mutatis Aereum

**Author's Note:**

> written for writer's month: day 14 - metamorphosis

Alec awoke feeling…strange. That was really the best word for the sudden feeling of overstimulation he felt deep in his bones. It was like when he drank too much coffee and felt hyper-focused on everything he turned his attention to.

Sitting up, he looked around curiously, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Magnus’ bedroom was just as they had left it the night before, from the clothes they had discarded in a slightly tipsy haze of desire as fumbled their way to the bed, to the book lying open on the vanity to a page with a very detailed illustration of the anatomical structure of a particular lesser demon. The unoccupied side of the bed was still vaguely warm, the bunched sheets and duvet still molded to the shape of Magnus’ body.

After another moment lingering, Alec rolled out of bed and pulled on a clean pair of sweatpants before poking his head out the bedroom door. He felt himself start to smile as soon as he saw Magnus, sitting cross-legged on his yoga mat with his hands relaxed at his side and his eyes closed. “Hey, good morning.” Alec spoke softly so as not to startle him, though startling Magnus was usually pretty impossible when he seemed to always be aware of things that most others weren’t.

“Good morning,” he murmured on a slow exhale before opening his eyes. For a moment they were calm, soft brown, before an abrupt shift turned them wide with shock and concern. “Oh my…”

Alec immediately looked around the space he occupied, searching for what could have startled Magnus so suddenly. “What?”

Magnus stood up carefully and banished his yoga mat with a flick of his fingers. “I’m not quite sure yet. Stand still for me, Alexander.”

He had to actively stifle his instincts in order to comply with Magnus’ request; familiar fingers trailed across the skin of his neck and shoulder, then traveled down his arm, over his wrist, and along the flat of his palm. _Touch-starved_ was one of the words Magnus had used to describe the cause of Alec’s hunger for affection. He swallowed hard when Magnus’ hand moved back up to his face. Magnus thumbed gently at the corner of Alec’s right eye and stared intently back at him. Alec had to fight to keep himself from twitching under such a concentrated gaze.

“Magnus?” he asked in a whisper, moving just his eyes to look away for a moment.

With a parting drag across his lower lip, Magnus pulled his hand back. “It appears the alliance rune has you in some kind of magical limbo.” Magnus led Alec to the mirror on the mantle and placed him in front of it purposefully. “That’s a working theory, though.”

The version of Alec that was looking back at him was emanating a pale blue energy that appeared to pulse around him like a shadow that clung to the body. The runes that were visible on his skin were no longer black but a deep shade of crimson, and for a moment he felt a shock of fear that it was blood, but when he reached up to drag a finger over one, there was no broken skin. Perhaps the most stunning feature, however, were his eyes—a mirror image of the cat eyes he had become so familiar with on his husband.

“Fuck me,” he exhaled breathlessly, stepping closer to the mirror until the tip of his nose was almost touching the cool glass. The golden eyes followed him as he turned his head slowly from side to side, intent on his reflection.

Magnus’ face came into view in the mirror, standing behind his shoulder with a look of equal parts concern and amusement. “I have to say this is not a potential side effect that I had considered when I began studying the rune.”

After his return from Edom, Magnus had spent half a day extensively questioning Clary about the alliance rune in order to compile documentation of its properties and effects. After her loss of power and memory at the hands of the Angels, Magnus had carried on with his analysis as best he could. The rune had only been used twice, to his knowledge—once on the journey to Edom, and once yesterday afternoon with Alec.

Maybe it was a selfish thing to be so stuck on, but Alec was feeling an ever-growing urgency to use the alliance rune with Magnus. Sharing himself with someone through that rune was more intimate than he had had the time to consider in his haste to bring Magnus home, and there was a residue left within him in the aftermath that felt like an itch that couldn’t be scratched. While he didn’t feel like Lorenzo had taken it lightly, it felt strange to Alec to have shared a bond like that with someone who wasn’t Magnus. He wanted to know Magnus in every way he could feel, taste, see, touch, and smell, and this was a previously unknown means of knowing him that Alec had not yet been able to reach.

After an extensive clean of the apothecary and drawing new wards around the room, Magnus had agreed to share the rune. It was like they were performing a lover’s ritual when the process began; both Alec and Magnus had removed their shirts to receive the rune on their chests and sat close together on a large pillow circled by candles that blazed deep purple. The moment Alec’s stele touched Magnus, the adamas glow turned from bright white to dark red but didn’t appear to resist him much at all as it had with the Downworlders who had worn it. Once the rawness of the freshly etched runes had begun to dull on their bodies, Magnus had brought their hands together against his chest and summoned his magic to his palms. To Alec’s surprise, it began to grow within his own, and he could _feel_ it between them like a living thing made from both of their bodies and souls. It was the strangest feeling of being within Magnus as well as without. He was intimately attuned to it lingering on his skin like a kiss or knitting him back together after an injury, and had even felt the unique sensation of sharing his strength more than a few times, but this was something he had never even dreamed of; a kind of euphoria that made his entire body feel alight. He couldn’t help himself from surging forward to passionately kiss Magnus as they sunk into an ouroboros of heat and yearning.

“What do you think caused it?” Alec finally abandoned his reflection and turned to look at his husband.

“I’m not sure yet.” There was no urgency to detect in Magnus’ countenance which was comforting. “I’ll be able to think with a clearer mind once I’ve had some breakfast, though.”

“I’ll make something.” Alec started for the kitchen, envisioning the kind of indulgent breakfast he could make, when suddenly the cabinets burst open with a loud bang, and the large mixing bowl on the counter splintered into large shards of metal. Alec froze, stunned and held up his hands sheepishly. “Was that me?”

Magnus laughed and pressed a comforting kiss to the back of Alec’s neck as he passed him by before repairing the bowl with a light flick of his forefinger. “That’s all right, Alexander. I think you’ll be a bit more accident prone for the time being, so I’ll brace myself now.” Leaning over the breakfast bar, he beckoned Alec over and pulled him close by the front of his shirt. “Try not to think about my Ming vase if you can help it. It’s been a part of my collection for _years._ ”

Petulant, Alec stuck his tongue out at him before leaning forward to nip at his chin playfully.

Magnus caught him before he could pull away though, nuzzling his nose softly. “I’ve never thought about what you might look like with my warlock mark, but now I’m wishing I’d been thinking about it sooner. Is it horribly vain that I find you breathtaking with eyes like mine?”

All previous sulking forgotten, Alec grinned shyly. “I don’t mind if it is. I like them too, which I guess makes us even.” Between one blink and the next, Magnus had dropped his glamour, and the familiar warm gold eyes filled Alec’s stomach with butterflies.

After a short discussion, Magnus decided to summon Belgian waffles with mixed berry compote and whipped cream from a little café in Marseille, as well as two cappuccinos from the coffeehouse they liked to stop at on the way to the Institute. They shared a luxurious span of time on the balcony, sharing the taste of warm berry sauce on their lips with tender kisses and enjoying the heavenly smells encircling the lounger they were sharing.

Once they were sated and warm after dozing lazily under the sun post-breakfast, Magnus sighed. “I should probably try to tend to your predicament, hmm?”

With a groan from deep in his chest, Alec pressed his cheek more intently into Magnus’ neck to try to keep him in place. “I’m not bothered by it, really.” To further entice him, he pressed soft, openmouthed kisses to every inch of golden skin from the base of his neck to the end of his collarbone. When he felt Magnus shiver, he moaned softly. A quiet _pop_ followed by a muffled laugh made him stop in his tracks. “Are you laughing at me?”

Magnus was biting the edge of his thumb to smother a smile. “Thank you for the lovely bouquet, angel.”

About to ask what he meant, Alec’s jaw went slack when he saw what looked like a small garden of white roses growing beneath them and reaching almost up to their waists. “Okay, maybe this is a little bit of a problem,” he conceded.

“How about we compromise then?” With a lazy flutter of his fingers, a leather-bound book appeared in Magnus’ hand. “I won’t go anywhere, but I will be productive.”

“Mm. Fine.”

For a while, the only sounds around them were the bustle of the city below, the wind grazing the leaves on the trees, and the occasional flick of a page. Suddenly, Magnus breathed out a quiet “oh” and began to turn pages more urgently. “It’s not uncommon for the state of the souls of those involved in magical binding to create an unexpected but not inexplicable reaction. I’ve seen it before—Yes, here it is.” He ran his index finger down the yellowing page thoughtfully. “I once knew a woman who had unknowingly tied her soul temporarily to another’s when they had already been bound by another bit of magic that had left behind a residue, if you will. What was left had become almost fused to her own soul, as a new piece, and when another bond was formed, there was a reaction.”

Alec finally raised his head, propping himself up against the pillow behind his shoulders. “What did that do to her?”

“Well, in this particular instance, they developed an occasional kind of emotional telepathy.”

“But you and I haven’t—”

The book disappeared from Magnus’ hand, leaving him free to press his fingers to Alec’s lips to quiet him. “It’s actually a known fact that a lot of the oldest magic was also the simplest. The bond you share with Jace is a soul bond that is forged by a rune and a promise. The one you and I share happened when you came to the loft to help Luke. To help me. You offered yourself to me, opened your being to me selflessly. When you shared your strength, we connected and forged something that left behind something significant in us both.”

“But why don’t you have runes then?”

Magnus chuckled. “I’m sorry to disappoint. Maybe you can draw them on me sometime; I have a beautiful chocolate body paint you might enjoy. But keep focused please, darling.” He carefully extracted himself from Alec’s almost cephalopodic limbs that clung to him and let his magic coalesce in his palms. “You don’t use your runes with me the same way I use my magic with you. My magic has interacted with you in so many ways for so long that we both have a sense of one another that goes beyond what we know. The alliance rune calls on something that you keep in here, just for you.” The blue wisps of magic that encircled Magnus’ fingers started to seep into Alec’s skin when he pressed his hand to Alec’s heart.

As soon as they came into contact, Alec felt as if molten lava had replaced the blood in his body, searing through his veins, but without the pain. It felt like rapture. He opened his mouth in ecstasy, but no sound came out. Like a shockwave, raw energy burst from his body and encased his and Magnus’ body what looked like strands of liquid gold.

It was as if, for one perfect moment, they were suspended in time and space as nothing more than their everlasting souls.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on [tumblr](http://mysterioklaus.tumblr.com)


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